An encounter in the desert
by keithallen
Summary: Kouta is traveling with Lucy and Nana to escape Kakuzawa and his band of thugs. John is traveling with Sarah and Cameron to attack a possible future Skynet installation. The counter man at the gas station they meet at may never be the same...
1. Chapter 1

An unexpected encounter in the desert

**BOOM**

In the passenger side front sat, Lucy came awake to find the car swerving, a 'whump whump whump' noise coming from the front as Kouta fought to get the car under control and stopped. Poised to use her vectors, Lucy relaxed as Kouta managed to pull over to the side of the road and stop. Lucy was thankful they were not hurt. Looking out at the vast expanse of rock and scrub brush that extended for miles in every direction, she knew this hot land where the bright sun beat mercilessly down on them was a terrible place to be stuck.

"Great, the car broke," Lucy said in an irritated huff.

"Blew a tire," Kouta explained and opened his door. "I'll get it fixed, don't worry."

As Kouta opened the door, the hot Nevada desert air rushed in. Not wanting Kouta outside working alone, Lucy got out with him.

They had come here to escape Kakuzawa and his homicidal lunatics. Lucy was glad to be far away from Kamakura. No troops of soldiers to attack them and better yet, no Yuka to constantly harass and beat on Kouta. The place they landed was nice. Good temperature, lots of things to see, and as long as Lucy and Nana wore the big wide brim hats, no one seemed to take notice of them. Many people had strange hair colors. Someone then took a picture of them, and becoming nervous, Kouta got a car and drove them out here into the middle of nowhere.

Seeing Kouta begin to sweat as he got out the small spare tire, Lucy lifted the front of the car with a vector, then held the tire still as Kouta removed the nuts holding it in place.

Rolling down her window, Nana asked from the back seat, " Is this going to take long? It's getting hot in here."

"Just hold on, Nana, we'll be done soon," Kouta assured her. He changed tires and got the nuts back on. He nodded to Lucy. "Done, thank you for helping."

"Anything for you, Kouta," Lucy assured him, and lowered the car back down.

"You don't mean, 'anything'," Kouta said teasingly.

"For you, I do mean anything," Lucy replied softly.

Kouta blushed and seemed to sweat a bit more in the heat. "It's really hot out here," he said, his eyes sweeping over Lucy's body. To change the subject, he opened Lucy's door and said, "I saw a sign for a service station a few miles back. That spare won't go far, so I'll get this tire repaired there. We can take a break from riding for a while too."

Kouta stored the bad tire and they got back in the car to resume their trip.

"Hey Kouta, Nana misses Mayu and Wanta," Nana said wistfully.

Kouta looked back at he through the rear view mirror. "I know, Nana. Have patience. Mayu has to finish school, and we have to find a good place to live. Then Yuka and Mayu can join us."

Lucy frowned at that. She was glad to leave Yuka behind. For the first time, Kouta was able to show her small bits of affection and didn't get slapped or punched for it. If it wasn't for Kouta caring about Yuka, that girl would at least be missing an arm or two by now. With any luck, they'd go so far Yuka would never find them.

.

Cameron, John Conner's personal Terminator and protector, drove the four door pickup through the desert as John beside her, and Sarah in the back, slept from the boredom of miles and miles of straight, flat road. Cameron was not bored. This, as any other thing she did, was merely a task to assist John. Scanning the gauges as well as their surroundings as they flew down the highway, she noted the internal temperature of the vehicle was 81 degrees. Warm for a human, but much cooler than the 112 degrees outside the vehicle. If she regulated the air conditioning down to the optimum of 70 degrees, then exiting the vehicle would put extra stress on John's body. If it was a stress that she could rub out of his muscles, that would be acceptable. He smiled at her when she did that. That type of temperature stress would make him sick, and that was not acceptable.

The fuel gauge indicated this vehicle had only enough fuel left for another fifty miles. Passing a sign advertising a service station, Cameron decided they needed to stop. They would not make the other eighty miles they had to travel without more fuel.

Coming upon the service station, Cameron slowed as she scanned the single story building and parking area. On this side of the structures just off the parking lot was a tow truck and an old school bus. No vehicles were at the pumps. On the other side of the lot was a man changing a tire and a pink haired woman wearing a sun dress and a large straw hat watching him. Going into the station was a girl Cameron calculated was about fifteen, maybe sixteen years old wearing the same type of straw hat over her purple hair. The desert across from the station held no vehicles or people. No energy signatures, no signs of an ambush.

Threat level zero.

"John, pit stop," Cameron announced as she pulled into the station. Lining up with the gas pumps, Cameron noted John had opened his eyes a crack. She got out to go pay for the fuel.

Letting John take his time waking up, Cameron went into the station. Inside was the average convenience store with coolers in the back and racks of edibles. The purple haired girl brought an armload of drinks and bagged snacks to plop them on the counter. Cameron took her place waiting behind the girl.

The greasy looking clerk in his undershirt rang up the items. "Twelve sixty two," he said bluntly.

The girl gazed at him as if she were lost and handed him a twenty. The man handed her back three dollars.

"That's not the correct change," Cameron stated.

"No Engles," the man said with a smirk.

"You are cheating her," Cameron replied in Spanish.

"Oriental, she won't know," the man said.

The girl looked back at her. In Japanese, she asked, "What did he say?"

Cameron answered her in Japanese. "I said he is cheating you. He gave you the incorrect change. He doesn't think it matters."

The girl frowned at the man. "Give me the right change ... or you'll be sorry!" she said firmly.

Cameron translated. "Give her the correct change, or there will be trouble," she said in Spanish.

The clerk eyed Cameron. With a huff, he passed over the rest of the change. The girl took it, then turned and happily said, "Hi Lady, my name is Nana. Who are you?"

"Cameron," she said, flicking her eyes at the girl. She then handed the man a hundred dollar bill. "I am getting gas and I know how to count. It would be a very bad idea to try to cheat me."

Cameron walked out of the store behind the girl. Going outside, she noted John had gotten out of the truck and was working the kinks out as he wandered toward her. To the side, the car dropped down a bit too fast for being lowered on a jack. Turning, she saw the man rolling the spare tire to the back, the woman was walking towards her. There was no jack. Cameron stopped to assess the situation.

No jack, that woman had been holding the car up. Humanly impossible.

The woman bore a stern, almost hard look, and red eyes. No human had red eyes.

The path John was walking would intersect with the path the woman was walking in fifteen steps. Although Cameron found no energy signals that would indicate the woman as a Terminator, there was no other explanation. Striding out towards the woman, Cameron pulled the 9MM hidden in her waistband and locked on target.

.

Lucy was becoming irritated. It wasn't Kouta's fault, he didn't break the car on purpose. Nana, although sweet, was becoming an irritant as she asked her simple questions. And the heat was really getting on her nerves.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

Lucy stopped short and blocked the bullets as the girl coming out of the store shot at her. Firing two shots for every step she took, the girl came close to see all her bullets hanging in the air in front of Lucy. She paused.

"My turn," Lucy grated as her eyes glowed crimson. She snapped the gun out of the girls' hand with a vector. The gun came apart from the strain of being held in an iron grip, and being torn loose from an irresistible force, but Lucy didn't notice. She hit the girl with her other three vectors square in the chest. As a shocked Nan watched, the girl didn't explode in a spray of red, but flew back to crash into the old bus so hard, she punched a hole through it.

The man who had been walking into the store stopped and gapped at first the rapid shots, then the girl flying back to impact the old bus so hard, it rocked up, threatening to tip over before it dropped back on it's wheels.

"Nana, get in the car," Lucy said in a deadpan voice.

Nana gapped at her. "But ... she helped me in the store!" Nana cried.

"And she shot at me. Get in the car!" Lucy roared.

The sound of ripping metal announced the girl climbing out of the bus, her hair frazzled and her clothes ripped. She charged. Lucy let her come on a few steps, then hit her again with all four vectors, adding a push. The girl shot back into the bus to make another hole. This time the bus tipped over on it's side from the impact.

A cry sounded out near the truck. A brunette woman was holding a shogun. Lucy grabbed it out of her hands, which sent the woman sprawling. Lucy threw the shotgun over the station roof to sail away in the distance.

"What's going on?" Kouta asked as he ran up to Lucy.

.

Sarah Conner had awoken to gunfire. The neatly full automatic sound from a 9MM. Cameron, that meant they had trouble. She'd grabbed the shotgun and stumbled out as she came awake. John was standing in the lot. She yelled his name, then something grabbed her gun. She'd tried to hold on, but it was ripped from her hands. Now, she was lying prone, gapping at John, and a pink haired woman by him. A purple haired girl yammered briefly in an oriental language. She then ran over and gave her bags to another oriental man as John ran for the overturned bus. The purple haired girl followed him.

.

"Cameron!" John cried as he got to the rear door of the bus. He tried to open it. It was jammed.

The girl with purple hair came up and motioned him aside as she said something he couldn't understand. She stared at the door. The door ripped free and few to the side.

"How did you do that?" John cried.

"Ahio?" The girl asked as she looked in.

John looked inside. Cameron lay in broken glass, debris and synthetic blood. She was trying to get up as her servos whined. Sparks flew from the back of one shoulder where her skin had been torn off to expose the metal underneath.

Pushing his way past the girl, John climbed in. "Cameron!" he cried. Going over to her, John knelt by her. "We'll get out out of here," he assured her. He was still trying to wrap his mind around what just happened.

.

Cameron's vision flickered and speckled with snow-static. She heard John' voice. Not being able to reason out why all her bullets stopped before hitting the woman, or how that woman had thrown her into the bus twice, she said, "John, run. I can't protect you."

The girl named Nana appeared beside John. "Aww wow, you're still alive! Usually no one lives after Lucy hits them, and you got hit twice!"

John eyed Nana, taken aback by her happy tone. "Who's this?" he asked.

"Her name is Nana," Cameron said. Summing up John's best chances for survival, she said to Nana, "Please let John go. I am the one you want to kill. Not him."

"Nana doesn't want to kill anyone," Nana announced. Pointing a scolding finger at her, Nana added, "And you shot at Lucy first! That doesn't help us keep Lucy from killing people. Please do not do that again! Now go apologize!"

Cameron struggled up with John and Nana's help. Crawling to the back, Nana ripped open the back to allow them to get Cameron out.

.

Sarah got up as the man who'd been talking to the pink haired woman came over to her. In broken English, he asked, "Are you all right?"

"Yes," Sarah said vacantly as she watched the woman fold her arms and stand watching them. 'What ... what happened?"

"Cameron is alive, but she's in bad shape," John called as he stepped from the wreckage with Cameron's arm over his shoulder. The purple haired girl was on Cameron's other side, helping to hold her up.

"I am Kouta, there was a misunderstanding," Kouta told Sarah apologetically. "No need for the police."

As Sarah watched, Cameron stumbled over toward the woman, then made John let her go. She moved to bow and fell to her knees. Bowing down before the woman, Cameron said, "Komenesai, Lucy Sama. Komenesai."

Sarah blinked. Since when did Terminators bow before anyone?

.

"I am so sorry," the girl said as she bowed to Lucy again. Her bare metal shoulder sparked again. "I mistakenly thought you were a threat to John. Please forgive me for attacking you."

Lucy let out a snort as she looked down on the ... whatever she was. She glanced at the man who was watching them "John did not shoot at me. I have no reason to harm him. What are you?"

"I am a Terminator, I was assigned to protect John."

"Terminator?" Lucy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I was designed to kill humans," Cameron said.

"So was I," Lucy stated. "I would suggest you stick to killing humans. You didn't seem to do very well against me."

"Yes, I am sorry. May you please let John go?" Cameron asked in a meek voice. This was the only tactical option she had left that might work. Begging for John's life.

Lucy called over to Kouta. "Kouta, tell John there to keep his toy robot away from me, or next time I will rip her apart and shove her pieces up his ass. I'm going in to the bathroom."

.

John watched the woman Lucy give one last glare at Cameron, the walk inside the station. He gently grabbed Cameron's arm to help her up. "Come on, let's get back in the truck."

Sarah came over to them. "What in the hell was THAT?" she snapped.

Cameron's head twitched as she looked at Sarah. "Now I know why no Terminator ever survived in Japan," she said, and her head twitched again as her shoulder sparked. "Neither did the HK's, or land rovers sent there. People like that lived there. Skynet stopped sending equipment, reasoning it was an off-grid automated defense system that was destroying their machines."

On Camerons' other side, Nana asked a question as she gazed up innocently at her.

"People like what?" Sarah asked.

Looking at Nana, Cameron talked to the girl briefly. She then said to Sarah, "People like this girl, and that woman. They are not human. They are called Diclonius. You would call them monsters. Perfect biological killers."

"Is it safe to be here?" John asked.

Cameron nodded. "Yes, but do not antagonize them. Especially Lucy. If she decided to kill, there is nothing you can do to stop her. It may become very uncomfortable for you if I attacked her again."

Thinking of the advantage of having people that could easily do so much damage to a Terminator, Sarah said, "We could use them here against Skynet."

"They hate humans too. We should do what we need to and leave," Cameron told her.

.


	2. Chapter 2

ch2

At the gas station in the middle of nowhere, Sarah looked down at the slugs lying in a group on the ground. "She can stop bullets," she said, not quite believing it.

"If I didn't see it, I wouldn't believe it either," John offered.

Sarah glanced back at the truck that now had Cameron lying in the back seat. "And she did that to a terminator. Our mission is screwed if we can't get Cameron fixed. I was counting on her."

John shrugged and said, "I can fix her, but it will take time. Mom, we should get our gas and go. I'm sure someone has called the cops by now."

Sarah had thought Cameron and terminators like here were the baddest thing on the planet. In a way, she was delighted to see Cameron get her ass kicked so fast, so completely. Maybe it wasn't Cameron they needed for this mission. She decided she to talk to these people.

Sarah walked into the station to see an odd sight. The clerk was hanging in the air three feet above the counter as Lucy stared at him. The man's face was opened up in terror. Kouta pleaded with the man in his broken English.

"All we are asking is that you charge us for our purchases. Then you can go back to hide in the back room." Kouta explained.

The man waved a hand frantically as he said, "All free, all free, just go!"

Kouta said something in Japanese to Lucy. The man dropped to the floor. The man scrambled up and fled through the back room. A door was flung open to the outside as the man ran away.

"Excuse me, I'd like to talk to you," Sarah said tentatively. She stiffened as Lucy's glare turned her way. She'd seen what happened to Cameron. In this woman's case, apparently looks could indeed kill. "I'd like your help."

Kouta talked with Lucy, then turned to her. With a bow, he said, "So sorry there was a misunderstanding, but we should go now."

"Please listen!" Sarah said, holding her hands up as she backed to the doorway. "The world, everything we know is in danger! Cameron was my best hope to get rid of that danger, but now she's scrap metal."

Kouta paused and asked, "What kind of danger?"

Sarah was sure the clerk had to have called the police. "Not here, I'm sure the police are on their way. Could you please follow us? There's a side road up ahead. We need to lie low for a while," Sarah told him.

"We don't need trouble, there has already been too much," Kouta stated.

"I apologize for Cameron's actions. If it were not so vital, I would not ask, but the fate of the world rests in our hands," Sarah said.

Kouta talked to Lucy, who didn't seem to be too happy about it. After a moment of them talking between themselves, Sarah said, "I'll pay you, PLEASE help me."

Kouta turned to her briefly, then continued to talk to Lucy. Lucy grumbled, then gave him a stiff nod. Kouta nodded to Sarah. "We will follow you. Be warned, if you are planning mischief, it may turn out very bad for you."

.

Cameron laid in the back seat where Nana had somehow lifted her up, turned her horizontal and floated her in. As John pumped the gas, Nana leaved over the front seat, gazing curiously at Cameron.

"You're a machine, but your name is Cameron?" Nana asked innocently.

Cameron looked at Nana through the interference in her visual sensors. "I was designed to look like a human. You appear human, but you are not," Cameron replied.

Nana frowned. "No, I'm not. Sometimes I do wish I was the same as everyone else, but it can't be helped. Just don't shoot at Lucy again, OK? That gets her mad."

"Were are you and Lucy from?"

Nana bit her lip. "I'm not suppose to talk about that," she mumbled. Brightening into a smile, Nana added, "Nana is really happy you're still alive! Will you go to a machine hospital now?"

"I am not alive, I am a machine. John will make the required repairs."

"But you are alive, even if you are a machine," Nana insisted. "So, is John your boyfriend?"

"I am his protector. I exist to help John."

"But you begged Lucy not to hurt him, so you must care for him," Nana countered.

"I do care what happens to John, he is my reason for existing," Cameron said.

Pointing a finger at her, Nana exclaimed, "That means he's your boyfriend!"

Cameron processed what Nana said, then tried to correct her. "No, that would mean the John cares for me as well."

"He does! Didn't he go into the bus to help you? He looks really upset that you got hurt," Nana stated.

"I cannot perform my mission. That is why he is upset. We have no intimate contact that would indicate a close relationship," Cameron stated.

Nana frowned at her again. "You mean kissing and things like that?"

"Yes."

Looking out at the station, Nana said, "Neither do Kouta and Lucy most of the time." With a giggle, she added, "Yuka likes to hit Kouta whenever they try to touch each other." In a more mussing tone, she said, "Maybe it's like that with the other lady who's with you."

"Sarah is John's mother, and no, she does not like us getting close."

"You see!" Nana said in triumph. "I bet if you were alone with John, he'd be happy to hug you and give you a kiss!"

"What purpose would that serve?" Cameron asked.

Nana blinked at her. "You've never had a hug?" she asked.

"NANA!" Kouta called from the parking lot.

"Nana has to go," Nana said. She waved and got out, yelling, "Coming Kouta!"

Cameron shifted her crackling gaze to the truck's ceiling. Upon John getting in the back with her, Cameron noted the distressed look on his face. As Sarah drove off, he gingerly touched the center of her chest and asked, "When did this happen?"

Cameron looked down at herself. There was a red spot right in between her breasts. "That is where I was hit. I cannot be accurate, for my pressure sensors were overloaded. From the dent, the force was approximately twelve thousand pounds. Any greater and my chest armor would have been breeched. If the force was focused on a single point, it would have gone right through me."

"Holy shit," John said in a breath.

"I suspect my armor has a crack in it, and my pseudo flesh in the area is ruined," Cameron stated.

John frowned and said, "OK, let's get you turned over and see what else is wrong with you."

Cameron did her best to comply, but needed John's assistance. As he probed her, Cameron played back her memories of John. Riley had been a security risk. That was why she didn't like her around John. She also listed other girls who had talked to John. She didn't like any girl getting near John. Although Nana's innocent and off base comments made no logical sense, Cameron still had to process the information with accuracy.

In the places where her touch sensors remained in operation, Cameron noted that John's touch was light, as if he was afraid of hurting her more. The light touches did send her pleasant stimulations. The thought of meeting lips with John just for the sake of doing it, was something she'd like to try.

.

Riding along following the pickup truck, Lucy mussed, "I don't think it's a good idea to get involved. Those people are nothing more than more gun-toting Baka's."

Kouta let out a huff. "That woman said the world is in danger. I think we should hear her out," he explained.

"Kakuzawa says the same thing," Lucy countered.

"Hey Lucy," Nana said from the back seat, "That girl Cameron said she was sorry, didn't she?"

"After she tried to kill me and failed," Lucy stated.

Kouta followed the truck off the main road onto a dirt path. They drove a short distance to a rise, then stopped on the back side, hidden from the road. Seeing the older woman get out, Kouta opened his door.

Lucy got out with Kouta. She eyed the woman, waiting for her to pull a gun. The instant the woman saw her, she raised her hands up showing her palms. Kouta and the woman talked a while. Mostly it was the woman explaining something to Kouta with gestures at the truck and in the air. Once the woman was done, Kouta explained to Lucy.

With a look of disbelief, Kouta said, "Sarah-san claims the robot girl, Cameron, was sent back from the future. Supposedly, there is a thing called sky-net that is going to kill everyone. Sarah-san's son, John, will grow up to lead the human resistance against these machines. The machines keep sending back things like Cameron to kill john. That is why Cameron is here, to protect him. They are trying to stop this sky-net from coming into existence."

Lucy eyed Kouta. "And you believe that?" she asked.

"I'm just telling you what she said," Kouta said with a shrug.

Lucy eyed Sarah. It was no secret that humans could lie well. "Baka," Lucy spat. Lucy walked past Sarah and opened the back door of the truck to see John working on the robot girl. He snapped his head up at her.

"Can you still speak?" Lucy asked.

Cameron lifted her head. "My communication system is still intact," she said.

"Give me one good reason why we should help you."

"To save John," Cameron stated.

Lucy shifted her eyes to the young man as he swallowed, staring back at her. Returning her gaze to Cameron, she asked, "Only because he is going to be this general?"

Cameron stared at Lucy briefly, then said, "No."

"Then why?"

"He is very important to me," Cameron stated.

Lucy eyed her a moment longer, then shut the door. Returning to Kouta's side, Lucy said, "It is up to you. We will not do anything that endangers you or Nana, and if they shoot at me again, I kill them all." She then returned to the car.

.

Sarah knew Spanish. She wished she had learned Japanese too as she heard Lucy talking to Cameron, then Kouta. Once Lucy was back in the car, Kouta thought for a moment, then said, "There are people chasing us. We need a good place to live a very low profile. Close enough to a town so we can get supplies, but remote enough that others won't notice us. If you can help us with that, we'll help you. I strongly urge all of you not to shoot at Lucy again. It will end very badly for you."

After seeing Cameron, the perfect killing machine, get her ass stomped by Lucy, Sarah knew better than to attempt violence against that monster. However, Lucy would certainly be able to take on any triple-8's they came across. "Agreed. We have money, we'll pay you also. We really need to stop Sky-net from happening for all our sakes."

.

Driving on, Sarah stopped at a motel. She asked Kouta to go in with her to pretend they were a family on a trip. They got three rooms, one for Kouta and Lucy, another for Sarah and Nana, and one for John so he could work on Cameron.

With the language barrier, it was going to be hard to plan their attack. Sarah went out by herself and got as close as she dared to the installation hidden in a box canyon. Stealthily going around the upper rim of the canyon, Sarah got a good look at how the place was arraigned. The only door was a steel overhead door on a side of the canyon, hidden from the canyon entrance. Visible from the entrance was a large shack that had a flatbed truck by it. It had to be a guardhouse. Most of the tracks going into the canyon curved to go into the steel door of the installation that was now shut.

"Freeze! Hand on your head!" a male voice barked from behind her.

Sarah stayed still and raised her hands in the air. "I'm sorry, I'm lost," Sarah said as she tried to figure out a way out of this.

"On your ..."

Sarah noted as his words were cut off, there was a slight ripping sound, then a wet noise like someone had dropped a large package of meat on the ground. She turned to see whoever the man had been, was now just a pile of gore lying on the ground. His blood ran down hill from the mess that used to be a man. A dozen steps behind him, Lucy stood, arms crossed over her chest.

"Baka," Lucy grumbled, and walked right up to the edge.

"They'll know we're here now. There is no way will will ever be able to sneak inside!" Sarah hissed as she pointed at the steel door down below.

Lucy eyed her and let out a snort. She then jumped off the cliff.

Sarah watched as Lucy made an incredible jump that took her all the way out over the guard shack. Lucy then plummeted down right through the roof, blasting a large hole in it. There was a scream, two shots, then the upper torso of a man blasted out the back wall. Next, what Sarah could only guess was a triple 8 followed the man's torso to slam against the rocks.

Lucy emerged from the shack in another flying leap. She landed near where the triple 8 was getting up. The triple 8 the rose up in the air and flew around Lucy in an arc to slam into the cliff again, making rock chips fly. The motion was fast, like the terminator had be shot out of a cannon. It then did a return arc hit the rock once more. After four times, the triple 8 made deep pits in the rock as it came apart from the pounding. It's head bounced away on the final slam. The remains dropped to the ground. Lucy walked back around the shack.

Somewhere behind the steel door, the muffled sound of an alarm rang out. Lucy bounded to the steel door in long leaps, then shot up and clung to the rock face over the door.

The steel door opened, six men came out in full combat gear brandishing automatic weapons, searching for a threat. They fanned out in a semi-circle around the entrance and scanned the area in front of them. Lucy lowered herself down to peek inside, then dropped down behind the men and looked at them. The men's throats opened up, their heads rolled down the collapsing bodies. Lucy walked inside.

Sarah stood with her mouth open the whole time this was going on. This Lucy made Terminators look like children's play toys. Only after Lucy was inside, did Sarah regain enough sense to start climbing down to retrieve and destroy the triple 8's chip.

.

Nana knelt by the edge of the bed, hands under her chin as she watched John working on Cameron who was lying down on her stomach, facing Nana. Noting how he was working on Cameron's shoulder, she said, "You are a good robot doctor, John-san."

Cameron translated for him. John glanced at her and said, "Thank you."

"Arigato, say that," Cameron coaxed.

"Arigato," John said, nodding at Nana.

Nana smiled. "Cameron, you can teach him to speak normal!" she said happily.

"That is just one word. To teach John your entire vocabulary and proper grammar would take approximately five hundred and forty two days," Cameron replied.

Nana blinked at her. "You are really smart," she said.

"I was programmed with three hundred twelve languages."

"Wow." Nana said in a breath, thinking programmed was equal to learning. "So, you are really smart. Do you know where we can live without anyone bothering us?"

"We will find a place where you will be left in peace."

The door opened. Sarah walked in followed by Lucy. Lucy snapped her fingers and pointed to the empty bed. Sarah sat down.

Lucy pointed at the door and said, "Nana, please leave. I must talk to these people."

Nana got up and left as she requested. Lucy waited until the door was shut, then looked at Cameron. "You can understand me well, yes?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Then understand this. I folllowed Sarah to that place. There, we found machines and destroyed them. That is all anyone is to admit to happening. Do not make the mistake of letting Kouta or Nana hear anything else. I also expect you to hold up on your end of the agreement. Understood?" Lucy said firmly.

"Understood."

Lucy turned and walked out.

Cameron translated for John and Sarah. Hearing that, John asked, "What did happen out there?"

Still not believing everything she saw, Sarah said in a monotone voice, "Lucy took out a guard I missed. She just didn't kill him, she ... turned him into hamburger. She jumped off a hundred foot cliff and down through the roof of a guard shack. Half a man came flying out the back, followed by a triple 8."

"Half a man?" John asked.

Sarah nodded. Putting a hand just below her ribs, she said, "About from here up. Lucy came out and pounded the triple 8 against the cliff until it came apart. An alarm went off. She got above the entrance. Six armed men came out, she dropped behind them and beheaded all of them a the same time. I got my senses back enough to climb down. As I was, I heard shots, screams, and a lot of crashing. By the time I got to the bottom, the noises had died down. I ran over to extract the chip from the downed triple 8. Before I could, Lucy came back and dragged it into the installation. She threw it inside, then made the whole place cave in."

Sarah then gave a giggle that sounded like she was half-mad. "What in the hell is she?"

"Someone not to anger," Cameron said. "From my files, Lucy has what is called telekinesis. Only in her case, besides moving things with her mind, she can also destroy them."

"All she has to do is 'think' someone to death?" John asked.

"She thought at least seven men and a triple 8 to death that I saw. Who knows how many more were inside," Sarah told him.

Cameron flicked her eyes at John. "We should find them a good place to live, and let them go on their way. Lucy cares nothing for human life, she is extremely dangerous."

"How long would it take for Skynet to open that cave up?" John asked.

Sarah shook her head. "Don't know, but it would take a while. When I say Lucy caved it in, I mean she really caved it in. The concrete and the rock above, she filled the place."

John rubbed a hand over his face. "Mom, you're talking like she's a real, live X-man."

"Maybe she is."

"John, stay away from her," Cameron said firmly.

Sarah scrubbed her head and got up. "I'm going to get us all something to eat."

"I'll go with you," John said.

"No, stay here. Someone might see you," Sarah cautioned, and went out.

John flopped down beside Cameron on the bed. "Like anyone out here is going to know who I am," he said with a huff.

Cameron turned onto her side to look at him. "If Lucy had destroyed me, would you be sad?"

"What?" John asked, frowning at her.

"If Lucy had destroyed me, would you be sad?" Cameron asked again.

"Of course I would," he said.

"Suppose I can no longer function properly, would you still want me around?"

John stared at Cameron. "Yes," he said evenly. "Why are you asking that?"

"Nana said you are my boyfriend."

John chuckled. "She did, huh?" he asked, and turned on his side towards her. "And what made her think that?"

"She said the way you came to help me, and how worried you looked after I got thrown into the bus."

Cracking a smirk, John asked, "And what do you think?"

"I don't know. Nana also said you don't kiss me because Sarah is always around."

"Do you want me to kiss you?" John asked.

Watching John intently, Cameron said, "I do like the way you touch me when you fix me. If kissing is anything like that, then yes. Please kiss me."

John edged closer. "Do you know what a kiss means?" he asked softly.

"Kissing means to touch our lips together." Cameron replied.

"That's all?" John asked, raising an eyebrow.

"A kiss is also a form of affection. Nana says Lucy protects Kouta because she cares about him. When I talked to Lucy, she made me admit that even if you weren't going to become a general, I'd still want to protect you," Cameron explained.

"Are you saying you care about me?"

"Yes. I was not programmed for it, but from what Nana explained, the indicators are that I do care for you, and you care for me."

John let out a snort, shaking his head. "You know, that was a very unromantic response."

"It is the truth."

John looked into Cameron's eyes, they moved closer together. Tentatively, they touched lips in a light kiss.

"So, how was it?" John asked.

"Nice. Can we do it again?"

They kissed again, longer. This time, John put is arm around Cameron. Cameron gently petted his cheek. Parting lips, Cameron noted John's breathing and heart rate had picked up. His face was flushed. She drew her hand back.

"I'm sorry John, kissing you makes your vitals increase. Perhaps this is not good for you."

John chuckled. "Oh, it's good," he said gazing at her. "It's really good."

"You like it too?"

"Very much."

They kissed again.

.

Nana noted Kouta and Lucy's door was locked. Cupping her hands to block out the daytime glare on the window, she peeking in between the shut curtains to see just a sliver of the room. They were on the bed, close together. With a huff, she went to John and Cameron's door. That was locked also. Again, a peek showed them on the bed, wrapped tight together, kissing. She went to her and Sarah's room and flopped down on the bed.

"This is so boring, everyone is kissing," Nana grumbled.

.

Sarah returned with boxed dinners. Seeing her door partway open, she gripped the 9mm behind her back and slowly peeked in. Nana was lying on the bed and missing an arm.

Sarah drew her gun. Moving into the room searching for a possible threat, she saw Nana's arm on the floor beside the bed. She checked the bathroom, then went over to Nana. Putting her fingers on Nana's neck, she checked for a pulse as she watched the open doorway.

Nana's eyes opened, then went wide. "Yaaa!" Nana cried.

Tensed for trouble, her finger already on the trigger and ready to shoot, Sarah jerked back, letting out her own surprised cry as she shot a hole in the bed. She watched in shock as Nana sat up and the severed arm rose up and put itself back in place. Nana then frowned at her as she pointed her finger and yelled.

From outside, doors burst open. John and Cameron came running to appear in the doorway. Cameron was pushed inside as Lucy appeared. All of them were in house robes.

"What happened?" John cried.

Lucy eyed Sarah malevolently. "You tried to kill Nana, huh?" she asked in a growl.

Nana shot up to stand on the bed. Waving her arms, she said, "No! Nana surprised Sarah-san. The gun just went off, she didn't try to kill me."

"Nana, you better go stay out here by Kouta," Lucy growled.

Cameron turned to Lucy. "Please, don't kill Sarah! Nana just said it was an accident," she said quickly.

Seeing Lucy's eyes redden with anger, Sarah swallowed hard. She hadn't understood a word, but knew Lucy was angry. She dropped the gun. "I'm sorry," she said in a squeak, just knowing she was about to be torn apart like those men were.

"Lucy, please don't!" Nana cried.

Lucy shouldered past Cameron and John with a growl. "BAKA!" she spat at Sarah. She picked up the pistol. To Cameron she said, "Open the doors on your car."

"It's a truck," Cameron replied blankly.

"Open the doors, or I'll rip them off!" Lucy snapped.

Cameron went out and followed Lucy's instructions. She then stood by as Lucy extracted guns from under the seats, glove box, and up under the dash.

"Idiots with their guns," Lucy grumbled. Once she had searched the truck to ensure she had gotten them all, Lucy flung each one far out into the desert, as far as she could throw.

"We are defenseless now," Cameron noted blankly.

Lucy eyed her and said, "Maybe she should have thought about that before she shot at Nana."

Walking over to Sarah, who was watching blank faced, Lucy once again glared at her and yelled, "BAKA!" She then grabbed Kouta by the hand and stormed back to their room.

"What does that mean?" Sarah asked quietly.

"It is a derogatory term, meaning stupid or idiot," Cameron supplied.

"Umm, Cam, can you get our guns back?" John asked as he looked out over the desert where he'd seen their weapons fly from view. The last he'd seen of the assault rifle, it was still climbing as it disappeared from sight.

"Yes, but they may not be operational when I find them," Cameron replied.

"We need to leave," Sarah said blankly.

"We can't, if you want our guns back. It will take most of the night to go retrieve them," Cameron told her.

"Are you fixed?" Sarah asked bluntly.

"Sixty five percent operational, my left arm is only thirty two percent operational."

Sarah looked at their truck sitting with all it's doors open. Their Terminator was broken, they had no guns, and someone was sure to have called the police. "Forget the guns. John, there are meals in the front seat. Three for ... them, one each for us. Pack up, we're leaving. We eat on the way."

.

Kouta had come to the same conclusion as Sarah, they had to leave before police showed up. Dressed now, Kouta noted Sarah coming over to the car. Lucy moved to stand beside him, eyeing her warily.

Sarah bowed to Kouta and said, "I am sorry for the accident, I meant no harm to Nana. When I saw her arm on the floor, I thought someone had attacked her. We must leave now. I don't think going to another motel will be safe."

"Where do we go?"

"We have some camping gear. We'll drive out into the desert for the night," Sarah explained.

Kouta winced. "This was a bad idea. Perhaps we should part company?" he asked.

Sarah flicked her eyes at Lucy. "We promised you a good place to live if you helped us. You held up your end of the agreement, we must hold up our end."

"As I said, this was a bad idea," Kouta stated. "We are leaving. Please, do not follow us."

Knowing Lucy demanded some compensation, Sarah reached for the pack of money in her back pocket. Her hand was grabbed, hard. Looking at Lucy, she said, "I was only going to pay you before you go."

Kouta translated for Lucy. Lucy lifted Sarah's hand up and extracted the thick white envelope. The envelope floated over to Lucy's hand. She let Sarah go.

"We need gas money to get home,"Sarah said, eyeing the envelope. It was all the money they had.

Kouta took the envelope and extracted a few hundred dollar bills, then gave the envelope back to Sarah. "Thank you. We are leaving now." He ushered Lucy into the car. Getting in himself, he started the car, backed out and drove off.

Sarah walked back to the truck where John and Cameron were already in and waiting. "We're going home," she stated.

Driving down the road, Sarah held a hand to her head. "I hope we never see them again," she muttered. "This mission was a disaster."

In the back seat, Cameron processed the information of their trip. "Not true," she said. "The installation is destroyed. Our goal was completed and something very nice happened."

Sarah glared at her through the rear view mirror. "We have no guns, you were nearly destroyed by that ... monster, she could have killed any of us at any time, and she was ready to take ALL our money. WHAT was nice about any of it?"

"John and I discovered we like to kiss," Cameron stated.

Sarah slammed on the brakes.


End file.
